IRIN-WA Weekly 267 covering 5 - 11 March 2005

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENTS:

COTE D IVOIRE: Rebels warn of imminent government attack
LIBERIA: With peace in place, the battle against HIV/AIDS gains momentum
GUINEA: Three senior ministers sacked from government
TOGO: Children rescued from trafficking wait with their nightmares to go home
LIBERIA: Lack of funds delays formation of new army
SIERRA LEONE: Third war crimes trial starts, AFRC leaders in dock


COTE D IVOIRE: Rebels warn of imminent government attack

Rebel forces in northern Cote d'Ivoire have accused government troops of preparing an imminent assault following last week's attack by loyalist militias on rebel positions.

"We have clear signs that the government troops on the frontline have been massively reinforced with men and arms," one rebel leader, Amadou Kone, told IRIN by telephone from the rebel stronghold of Bouake on Friday.

In a statement issued late on Thursday, the New Forces rebels said that last week's attack by militiamen loyal to Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo on a rebel checkpoint in the western town of Logouale was "a prelude to an imminent reprisal of hostilities right across the frontline."

But Gbagbo's right-hand men shrugged off the accusations on Friday.

Last week's attack on Logouale, a rebel outpost on the frontline, 520 km northwest of Abidjan, has given rise to a torrent of speculation about a resumption of fighting, that culminated in the rebel accusations.

Amidst this backdrop of mounting tension, accusation and counter-accusation, humanitarian workers are sounding the alarm. Officials at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that as many as 15,000 people had fled their homes in the buffer zone since the Logouale attack.

In a statement released on Thursday, OCHA also said there had been a series of clashes in the villages of Fengolo, Toa, Zeo and Diahouin close to the town of Duekoue in the so-called "Wild West", a hot bed of inter-ethnic tension and the heartland of the cocoa producing region.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46077


LIBERIA: With peace in place, the battle against HIV/AIDS gains momentum

Now that peace has returned to Liberia, people living with HIV/AIDS are setting their sights on a new fight - the battle to contain the pandemic.

Campaigners say the first priority is to break down the barriers of discrimination, still strong in a country struggling to shake off 14 years of civil war, a time when little could be done on the AIDS information and prevention front.

In this country busy healing the wounds of war and restoring battered health facilities, officials fear a spread in the pandemic as almost a million people displaced by war start to return to their homes.

The 350,000 Liberians who sought refuge in other nations in the region "are coming back from host countries with a prevalence of between 3 and 5 percent, with the exception of Cote d'Ivoire, where the rate is almost 10 percent," said the UN refugee agency UNHCR on its website.

Mass population movements could increase the risk of spreading the HI virus in a country struggling to rehabilitate basic health care services, the agency added.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46026


GUINEA: Three senior ministers sacked from government

Long-ruling but ailing Guinean President Lansana Conte has sacked three senior ministers and replaced them with officials from his ruling party.

No reason was officially given for the dismissals of Security Minister Moussa Sampil, Foreign Affairs Minister Mamadi Conde and Mines Minister Alpha Mady Soumah that were announced on state radio late Tuesday.

However, observers noted that outgoing security minister Sampil had not managed to find the culprits behind what authorities say was a failed assassination attempt on Conte in January.

Sampil, who was given a post at the justice ministry, was replaced by Ousmane Camara, a parliamentarian for Conte's Party of Unity and Progress (PUP).

Foreign Affairs Minister Conde was ousted in favour of Kaba Mahawa Sidibe, who has been serving as Guinea's ambassador to regional heavyweight Nigeria.

And Ahmed Tidiane Souare, a senior finance ministry official, takes over the mines portfolio from Soumah and with it responsibility for a third of the world's bauxite reserves.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46027


TOGO: Children rescued from trafficking wait with their nightmares to go home

The wisp of a girl sits silently to one side, staring at the scarred tips of her fingers. Probably no more than five years old, Enyonam has just arrived at a centre for trafficked children in the Togolese capital, Lome.

She doesn't remember the day her parents handed her over to work for her "patron". But she does recall the moment when her new master accused her of stealing eggs and burnt the ends of her fingers with a match as punishment.

The 'Centre of Hope' will be home for Enyonam until authorities can locate her family and piece together exactly what happened to her. That could take anything from days to months. In the meantime there's a psychologist and a nurse on hand to try to heal the mental and physical wounds.

Child trafficking is a pervasive problem in this tiny West African nation, which lies in the middle of the trucking highway that links Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire with Lagos in Nigeria.

Up-to-date, reliable statistics are hard to come by but a 1997 study by local group WAO-Afrique estimated that there were at least 313,000 Togolese children aged between five and 15 working in urban centres at home or abroad in conditions of near or actual slavery.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46001


LIBERIA: Lack of funds delays formation of new army

Liberia's transitional government is desperately seeking the funds needed to disband its existing army before it can form a new national force, Defence Minister Daniel Chea said on Monday.

Chea told IRIN that the power-sharing government needed US$18.3 million to disband the current army, which has been in disarray since the start of the civil war in December 1989 when most of its senior commanders defected to rebel factions.

Putting the current strength of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) at about 15,000 troops, Chea said the funding was needed "to pay off those former soldiers who will be retired and also settle the severance benefits of other soldiers who will not form part of the AFL".

Disarmament and demobilisation of militia fighters and rebel factions involved in Liberia's 14-year civil war ended last October. The AFL, along with the two rebel factions who fought the civil war, was disarmed by UN peacekeepers and all of the rebel movements were disbanded, including militia groups loyal to Taylor.

The recruitment and training of a new broad-based national army had been set to begin in March or April but Chea said the start of the restructuring exercise had been delayed because the Liberian government are having problems finding the cash.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45957


SIERRA LEONE: Third war crimes trial starts, AFRC leaders in dock

Three leaders from a military junta accused of causing "pain and agony beyond human description" during Sierra Leone's civil war, stood in the dock on Monday as the country's third and final war crimes trial got underway.

Prosecutors said the three defendants -- Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu -- were all part of the governing body of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) which overthrew elected president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in 1997 midway through the war and ruled for just 10 months.

During their reign and after their fall from power, the AFRC group of disgruntled soldiers joined forces with the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The alliance culminated in "Operation No Living Thing", a devastating attack on the capital in 1999 which turned the city into an "oozing grave".

The three defendants from the military junta, who have spent more than a year in detention, have been charged with 14 counts of crimes against humanity. They deny the charges.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45958

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